Vietnam Vs. Iraq
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The responsibilities of a presidential administration to the United States should be easily defined, but in many instances have come to be uncertain. There are two wars over the last century that have compromised the American reputation, as well as the integrity of our people. On these two occasions the intentions of our president have been something different than publicized to the country. The United States as a whole was deceived by two particular leaders and their administration. Through propaganda, selective speech, and exaggerated evidence, Presidents Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush manipulated the support of the nation for their bold military actions and personal agendas.
In August of 1964 there was an alleged attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats against the United States navy while they were stationed in the Tonkin Gulf reporting intelligence information to South Vietnam. This attack was said to have occurred with no provocation from the United States. President Lyndon Johnson and his advisers decided upon immediate retaliation with air attacks. Johnson went further in asking Congress to pass a resolution that would authorize further military action. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was passed by Congress on August seventh. This has been described by historians as a “blank check” for the Johnson and Nixon administrations (Nelson, 452). It gave the president great authority over decisions made about the war in Vietnam. Both Johnson and Nixon cited the Tonkin Gulf Resolution many times during their terms to justify further military action in Southeast Asia.
In 1968, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee performed investigations that revealed that Johnson had been deceptive in gaining the support of Congress. Records and testimonies showed that the U.S. ship attacked that August day in 1964 was actually in North Vietnamese territory gathering sensitive information. It was also revealed that the administration was aware that an attack was possible while in these waters (Nelson, 452). There were also further revelations of the deception of President Johnson. In 1995, Vo Nguyen Giap, a retired Vietnamese general met with former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. In this meeting, Giap repeatedly denied that the Tonkin Gulf attack had ever happened. Also, in 2001, a taped conversation between Lyndon Johnson and McNamara exposed Johnsons own doubts that the attack had ever occurred weeks after he had convinced congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution (Nelson).
The purpose of the Vietnam War was to stop communist expansion and to protect South Vietnam from attacks by North Vietnam and rebels within South Vietnam who hoped to unite the two countries under communism (Nelson, 488). This war was one of the most excruciating experiences in American history. It left us wounded and deflated as a superpower. Americans view of their country after a loss and embarrassment like this one was now ruined. No one president is entirely responsible for the development of this war, but Johnson was the first to send combat troops to Vietnam. Years later, after learning the deception of the Johnson administration, blame may be placed more upon Johnson and his manipulation of Congress and the public by publicizing a threat to our security that never existed. The administration took advantage of Congress and exaggerated or simply created an attack on the U.S. as an excuse to use military action on North Vietnam.
Daniel Ellsburg, a government insider and a State Department civilian during the Vietnam War, stole, copied and published the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers were a top secret study of the U.S. decision making in Vietnam. Ellsburg worked closely with the presidential administration during the war and was sent to Vietnam for two years to observe the war and evaluate the “pacification” of the countryside (Ellsburg, VIII). Immediately after returning from Vietnam he began to do everything in his power to free the United States from this war and educate Americans on what was really happening overseas. In photocopying the Pentagon Papers, he gave up his career, knowing that there would be federal punishment. These papers were a study that revealed a considerable degree of miscalculation, bureaucratic arrogance, and deception on the part of policymakers. In particular, it found that the U.S. government had persistently resisted full disclosure of increasing military involvement in Southeast Asia, including air strikes over Laos, raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and offensive actions by U.S. marines had taken place long before the American public was informed. After the publication of these papers it was apparent that the presidential administrations during the Vietnam War were incredibly deceptive and manipulative. Secret intentions and ambitions were sought after without the knowledge of Americans.
In more current events, President George W. Bush led us into war with Iraq in March 2003. Most Americans would agree with the Bush administration that the Iraqi regime is “evil.” In regards to a war with Iraq, Americans tended to be uncertain. The Bush administration needed to sell the cause of the war and show that it was pertinent to our safety and future to go into Iraq. The presidential administration made it clear that Iraq posed a serious threat to not only the United States, but the world, because they were in possession of and developing more weapons of mass destruction. His administration also spoke of a contract between Iraq and al Qaeda. This contract could be used to send weapons to Osama bin Laden and his followers to use against the United States.
The accusations against Iraq and their threat to the United States were very strong and boldly stated. The administration claimed to have hard evidence that they had such weapons and that is was our duty to find them. In 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney simply said, “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.” The day before the war against Iraq officially began, President George W. Bush stated, “Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.” (Counter Punch) It was never presented as suspect, but as fact. These weapons were in fact present in the Iraqi regime, according to these statements and many more made before, and during the war.
Over the course of the war, the search for these weapons of mass destruction grew very bleak. Americans grew suspicious of our governments real motives in sending our troops to the Middle East. If there had been such clear cut evidence that the weapons existed, where were they? In 2003, Secretary of State, Colin Powell stated, “Our conservative estimate